Finalmente! Una ventata d'aria fresca. Una donna musulmana, femminista, che decide, dopo attenta riflessione, di non indossare più il velo.

Una scelta coraggiosa e controcorrente, che merita attenzione e visibilità.

Riporto alcuni brani dell'articolo dii Ala Abbas e, di seguito, il link diretto dove potrete leggere tutto nella sua interezza.

In the religious sect my parents belong to, hijab is incumbent on girls from the age of nine and is defined as the covering of everything apart from the hands and face.

I had egalitarian notions of modesty as a child and couldn’t understand the difference between a girl showing her legs and a boy showing his. I remember on a school trip once, a girl of probably around eight or nine took her top off in the scorching summer heat just like all the other boys were doing. The girl was reprimanded by others for having “no shame”. While I understood it was a rare sight, I felt this judgment was a little unfair, as her chest looked no different from the boys’.

Becoming so used to wearing it, and living in a cosmopolitan city like London, I forgot I even wore something that set me apart from people around me. It became second nature and a part of my skin that I would feel incomplete without.

If you go from being a non-hijabi to a hijabi, everyone loves you for your newfound piety. But I’ve never seen this happen the other way round. Once you wear the hijab, and everyone knows you for it, showing up without it somehow makes you feel even more naked than someone who never wore it in the first place. I can only speak for myself, of course, but it was partly due to the fear of these attitudes that I came to the conclusion that the hijab was unnecessary long before I made the decision not to wear it. I made this decision only recently, and it has been a shock to the system. Most of my old acquaintances have no idea, and I haven’t made the bold step of ‘coming out’ completely. I still remember how some of my mum’s friends were always at the ready to point out if I wasn’t covered properly. What would they think of my poor mum now?

In an ideal world the rules of modesty for women should be no different than those for men.

Il coraggio mostrato da queste donne è senza pari. Protestare pubblicamente contro i talebani in Pakistan di coraggio ne richiede tanto.

Contro l'integralismo islamico e la commistione tra l'islamismo e la politica si levano voci che aspirano alla democrazia e pluralità.

in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore this week, several hundred protesters gathered on a scorching day to take on a very different target: the Taliban.

Neha Mehdi moved to Lahore to study. Now, she fears her way of life is being threatened by the Taliban.

"I cannot give up my education, and I cannot give up the way I'm living," the 23-year-old student said. "These Talibans have ruined the reputation of Islam."

"There were threats here also from the Taliban that if we gather they might just bomb us," Mehdi said.

Mehdi and others in Lahore fear that the Taliban's version of sharia -- which forbids girls from attending school, as well as music, poetry and dance -- is slowly creeping into Lahore, the center of Pakistani culture.

Mehdi said she fears her life as a student could come to a violent end if the people of Lahore do not stand up to Islamic extremists.

"If the Taliban take over then I'll be on the road being flogged by one of them like they did in Swat and I don't want that," she said.

 Ms. Saberi had been held in Evin prison since January. The court ruling meant that she can leave the country immediately if she decides to,

Her father, Reza Saberi, told journalists that Ms. Saberi was “exhausted but in good condition.” “Her release was a big surprise,” he said.

In Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she was “heartened” by the ruling. The State Department had called the charges against Ms. Saberi baseless and urged her release.

The head of the New York based group, the Committee to Protect Journalists, said he was “thrilled” that Roxana Saberi has been released from prison and look forward to welcoming her home.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/world/middleeast/12iran.html?_r=1&hp

"Le droit des femmes n'est pas une affaire de centimètres de tissu, mais la burka est le symbole de l'oppression que subissent les femmes, il faut encourager le débat sur cette question", a-t-elle déclaré mercredi à l'AFP.
"Il ne faut pas avoir peur d'en parler, il faut rendre visible la réalité et la dégradation de la condition des femmes (...). Nous allons faire notre travail de lutte contre les fondamentalistes", a-t-elle ajouté.

http://www.lepoint.fr/actualites-societe/2009-06-17/voile-integral-en-france-ni-putes-ni-soumises-veut-un-debat/920/0/353318

http://www.andregerin.com/index02.html

La vision de ces femmes emprisonnées nous est déjà intolérable lorsqu'elle nous vient d'Iran, d'Afghanistan, d'Arabie Saoudite... Elle est totalement inacceptable sur le sol de la République française", considère André Gerin.
Outre André Gerin, le texte est notamment signé par Christian Bataille (PS), Patrick Beaudoin (UMP), Alain Benisti (UMP), Véronique Besse (NI, MPF), Jacques Desalangre (PCF), Nicolas Dupont-Aignan (NI), Jean-Pierre Kudeicha (PS), Pierre Lellouche (UMP), Maurice Leroy (NC), Lionnel Luca (UMP), Thierry Mariani (UMP), Jacques Myard (UMP).

Pour sa part, le recteur de la mosquée de Paris, Dalil Boubakeur, explique au nouvelobs.com que "la burqa n'est en rien une prescription religieuse de l'Islam. Cette tradition est bien antérieure au Coran et provient d'une coutume locale d'Afghanistan. En quelque sorte, la burqa est "une vision talibanesque de l'Islam". Reste qu'elle "tend à un phénomène extensif, par mimétisme de ces peuples qui 'luttent' contre les Américains".

http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/actualites/politique/20090617.OBS0960/port_de_la_burka__des_deputes_reclament_un_debat.html

The Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC) applauds French president Nicholas Sarkozy for his clarity in condemning the burka as a tool of oppression against Muslim women. 

"If the burka was a matter of choice, then why is it that I do not see a single Muslim man wearing this black tent of shame," said Sohail Raza.

MUSLIM women and their Christian fiancés from across Europe are travelling to Oxford to get married because imams in their own countries refuse to perform the ceremonies.

Couples from Spain, Germany, Sweden, Ireland, France and Norway have all come to Dr Hargey after failing to find someone locally prepared to carry out the service.

Most had spent months looking for an imam, and many found Dr Hargey after contacting American Muslim leaders via the Internet.

Dr Hargey, who believes he is the only imam in the UK who openly performs the mixed marriages, said: “We do it because there is no prohibition in the Koran.

“Islam allows Muslim men to marry non-Muslim women and such marriages are common, but I am one of the only people who will do it the other way round.”

Trovo letteralmente sconvolgente e profondamente ingiusto oltre che scorretto il fatto che in un matrimonio tra un cattolico ed un protestante i figli debbano per forza essere allevati nella fede cattolica. Questo significa che una chiesa tende ad aumentare i propri membri a discapito dell'altra.

La scelta dell'educazione religiosa, o dell'assenza di educazione religiosa dovrebbe essere lasciata ai genitori e non imposta dall'alto dei cieli. La coraggiosa Sheila ha lottato proprio per la libertà di scelta in tal senso.

A member of the Church of Ireland, her decision 52 years ago to flee her Catholic husband and the State rather than allow her children to be educated at the local Catholic national school led to a boycott of Protestant businesses in the south Co Wexford village.

Although Ms Cloney herself shunned publicity, two years before his death, Mr Cloney spoke about the events of 1957 to The Irish Times. He recalled that his wife had resented being pressurised by the Catholic priest who had told her: “Eileen’s going to the local Catholic school and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

He said: “Sheila didn’t fancy being ordered. She developed the frame of mind, ‘we’ll see what could be done about it’.” He explained the couple’s eventual resolution of the controversy: “Whether they went to a Protestant or a Catholic school would be seen as a victory for one side or the other and we could not sanction that. So they never went to school and we educated them ourselves.”

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0630/1224249782433.html

Police have fired tear gas at supporters of a Sudanese woman charged with wearing "indecent clothing", shortly after her trial was postponed.

Lubna Ahmed Hussein says she was arrested for wearing trousers.

She has adopted a defiant attitude, urging authorities to try her although she faces up to 40 lashes in public.

Earlier, she told the BBC she was not afraid, saying: "Flogging is not pain, flogging is an insult to humans, women and religions."

Ms Hussein has resigned from a UN job that would have given her immunity to take on the case - indicating she wants it to become a test case for women's rights in Sudan.

"If the court's decision is that I be flogged, I want this flogging in public," she told the BBC's Today programme.

"Before police caught me, there are maybe 20,000 girls and women getting flogged for dress reasons," she said.

If this could happen in a restaurant in Khartoum, imagine what the situation must be for women in Darfur, Ms Hussein said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8182658.stm

Per sostenere Lubna e le altre donne sudanesi vittime degli integralisti islamici vi invito a scrivere lettere di protesta:

The Sudanese Minister of Justice,
Mr. Abdul-Basit Sabdarat.
P.O. Box 302 - Zip Code: 11111
Nile St. Khartoum - Sudan
Tel: 00249912287609 (The mobile number of the admin of their website)
Fax: 00249183764168
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Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women
Rashida Manjoo
OHCHR-UNOG
8-14 Avenue de la Paix
1211 Geneva 10,
Switzerland
Fax: 00 41 22 917 9006
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Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment,
Manfred Nowak
OHCHR-UNOG
8-14 Avenue de la Paix
1211 Geneva 10,
Switzerland
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Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders
Margaret Sekaggya
Fax: +41 22 917 9006 (Geneva, Switzerland)
Telephone: +41 22 917 1234.
E-mail: Questo indirizzo e-mail è protetto dallo spam bot. Abilita Javascript per vederlo. . The text of the e-mail should refer to the human rights defenders mandate.

Tanzania has launched a bank aimed specifically at women in what officials say will be an empowering move.

Margareth Mattaba Chacha, the managing director, said: "We know some women hesitate to come forward - they are too shy and think they don't know anything.

"But here we're going to have a big group of professionals to take women through step-by-step until we really reach our women."

Almost 150 women living in the Maldives face a public flogging for indulging in extra-marital sex after being convicted by the Muslim country's conservative courts. Around 50 men also face the punishment.

In the Maldives, an island nation made up of more than 1200 atolls, the issue of flogging has become a political battleground following the whipping of the teenager earlier this month outside a government building in the capital, Male. Reports said that the women required hospital treatment after she was flogged in front of a jeering crowd of men. 

Reports suggest that in recent years, many mosques in the Maldives have fallen under the influence of foreign, conservative imams. The previous president, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who had been Asia's longest-serving ruler and who positioned himself as the country's "defender of Islam", had sought to use the religion to bolster his dwindling. 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/150-women-face-adultery-flogging-on-maldives-1757150.html

Sisters In Islam (SIS) urges the government to review whipping of women as a form of judicial punishment by the Syariah Courts. It constitutes further discrimination against Muslim women in Malaysia and violates Constitutional guarantees of equality and non-discrimination.

There is no consensus among Muslim scholars on the range of crimes for which whipping is prescribed, nor on whether women should be whipped. Many countries have already abolished the judicial punishment of whipping or corporal punishment as research has shown that it is not an effective deterrent, even to violent or sexual crimes. Research since abolition also showed that this did not result in an increase in the offences for which whipping was previously imposed.

http://www.sistersinislam.org.my/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1052&Itemid=1

Police order a lingerie shop to hide its scantily clad mannequins. A judge warns female lawyers to wear head scarves in court. Beach patrols break up groups of singles and make men wear shirts.

It's all part of a new Hamas campaign to get Gazans to adhere to a strict Muslim lifestyle -- and the first clear attempt by the Islamic militants to go beyond benign persuasion in doing so.

female lawyers will have to wear a dark dress with a veil (the hijab). PCHR-Gaza maintains that the judicial authorities in Gaza, linked to Hamas, are not authorised to impose any type of "uniform", which will only widen the gap between Gaza and the West Bank.

 http://www.ansamed.info/en/news/ Questo indirizzo e-mail è protetto dallo spam bot. Abilita Javascript per vederlo.

In a recent speech, French President Nicolas Sarkozy stated that the burqa [1] is a sign of subjugation of women, and as such is "not welcome in France." His statements evoked sympathetic reactions from columnists in the Saudi and Egyptian press. Female Saudi columnists stated that the Islamists had turned women's traditional coverings into a political symbol, and that terrorists used them in terror attacks, while an Egyptian columnist said that covering women in this way signified subjugation, and thus these garments were not wanted in countries where women are respected.

"Some Muslim women in Europe wear the hijab against their will, due to the piety of their families who identify with or belong to one of the Islamic political movements. Others wear it out of religious conviction... or out of political conviction, aimed at making the burqa or niqab into a political symbol, not a religious symbol. By so doing, [these women's families] confront European racism and strengthen their affiliation with Islam, or identify with the Islamic movements... Everyone knows that women are the trump card of these movements, which exploit the [women's] emotions and their weaknesses... while using the democracy and freedoms in the Western countries to attain their political goals. 

n her column in the Saudi daily Al-Watan, Saudi columnist Layla Ahmad Al-Ahdab stated that women's coverings should be banned in Europe, because terrorists conceal themselves in them when they carry out terror attacks.

"Sarkozy was right when he said that the niqab is not welcome on French soil, because it is not a religious symbol but a symbol of subjugation. I add my voice to his, and I agree with him, perhaps for the first time. The niqab is indeed not welcome in France, just as it is not welcome in any country that respects women.

http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP246909

Un'interessante presa di posizione contro il burqa che, al contempo, condanna anche la politica multiculturalista.

The discussion is relevant, since the fundamental purpose of the burka is to oppress women. The burka is intended as a means to hide women and protect them from contact with strangers, particularly men. That kind of thinking goes completely against the way we in Denmark have organised our society.

This is why it is important to underscore that Muslim girls who live in Denmark are Danish girls, and they should have the same right to make their own decisions as anyone else their age.

In my opinion, we have for years avoided ‘meddling’ with the upbringing of young Muslims.

Young Muslims should have access to the same counsellors as other young people, and precisely the same norms as them, because they need to be able to make their own decisions about how to live their lives.

Decisamente una buona notizia. Rimane il fatto che è quanto meno sconcertante che una donna debba vivere un tale incubo per il semplice fatto di indossare i pantaloni.

A female Sudanese journalist, jailed for a month after being convicted of "dressing indecently" by wearing trousers, has been freed after one day.

Mohedinne Titawi, of the Sudanese Union of Journalists, said the union had paid the fine to secure her release.

Ms Hussein, in her 30s, had faced a penalty of up to 40 lashes.

International rights groups criticised the trial from the start, with the UN on Tuesday saying the charges against her breached international law.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8244339.stm

The guidebook was produced by APWLD in close collaboration with individuals and organisations that participated in the international campaign on women human rights defenders since 2005. Printed copies are for sale at 25USD including postage. For orders please contact APWLD at Phone numbers: (66) 53 284527, 284856
Fax:  +66 53 280847 email:  Questo indirizzo e-mail è protetto dallo spam bot. Abilita Javascript per vederlo. .

http://www.defendingwomen-defendingrights.org/pdf2008/EN_Claiming_Rights.pdf

Che dire? Era ora!

Canada's revamped citizenship guide warns newcomers that "barbaric cultural practices" such as honour killings will not be tolerated, marking a stronger tone against importing beliefs that clash with Canadian values.

A specially-designed refuge to protect women at risk of forced marriage and "honour-based violence" has opened in east London.

The Saranaya Refuge is one of only two of its type in the UK.

They are operated by the Ashiana Network, with Waltham Forest Council providing financial support for both.

The Association of Chief Police Officers estimates 17,000 women in the UK are subject to "honour-based violence", including murder, each year.

Ashiana Network director Shaminder Ubhi said: "It is unacceptable that young women should be told who they can and cannot marry in the 21st Century.

"It continues to shock and sadden me that women are still being brutally punished by their own relatives for bringing 'dishonour' on their families.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/8351976.stm

The pair are co-founders of Women of Zimbabwe Arise, whose acronym WOZA forms an Ndebele word that means "come forward." Behind Williams and Mahlangu around 70,000 Zimbabweans have signed on to do that. Like the founders, many have been beaten and worse; the two leaders say more than 3,000 have been arrested for demonstrating.

The women were interviewed in Washington in advance of Monday night's White House ceremony in which they are to receive the 2009 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award from President Barack Obama. Ethel Kennedy, widow of the assassinated senator, will attend.

An absolute for the demonstrations by WOZA and its newer male counterpart, MOZA, is nonviolence, the founders insist. No matter what, demonstrators are told, do not strike back.

The Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights is not the first organization to honor WOZA and the women who formed it. Among others that have are Amnesty International and the U.S. State Department, which awarded Williams an International Woman of Courage award in 2007.

Several hundred joined a rally in London’s Hyde Park organised by One Law for All to show their opposition to Sharia and religious-based laws in Britain and elsewhere and to demand universal rights and secularism.

The rally heard from people with direct experiences of Sharia law, including Iranian-born activist Sohaila Sharifi and Somali-born secularist Ismail Einashe. Einashe spoke of his cousin who had been forced to remain in a violent marriage by the sham courts here in Britain.

One Law for All will continue to push for an end to Sharia and religious laws in Britain. In the coming year, the campaign aims to conduct a survey of women who have been to Sharia courts here, will hold a fundraiser dinner on January 28, 2010 to raise money for the campaign; will host a March 8, 2010 seminar with legislators, lawyers and campaigners to recommend the legal and legislative avenues to ban Sharia and religious courts in Britain; will organise a June 20, 2010 rally against Sharia law; and will hold an October 10, 2010 conference on Sharia Law and Apostasy amongst other activities.

http://www.onelawforall.org.uk/successful-rally-against-sharia-law-in-uk-21-nov-2009/

A “stop the minarets” campaign has provoked ferment in the land of Heidi, where women are more likely than men to vote for the ban after warnings from prominent feminists that Islam threatens their rights.

“If we give them a minaret, they’ll have us all wearing burqas,” said Julia Werner, a local housewife. “Before you know it, we’ll have sharia law and women being stoned to death in our streets. We won’t be Swiss any more.”

A poll suggested the Swiss would narrowly reject a ban but the feminist involvement is having an effect: according to one poll, 39% of women were in favour of a ban, but only 31% of men.

Tatiana, a teacher who had previously voted for the left, was quoted in a newspaper as saying she would vote for the minaret ban as she could “no longer bear being mistreated and terrorised by boys who believe women are worthless”.

NO COMMENT!

Make-up by women during television

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/middle-east/Makeup-Its-against-Islam-Iran-women-told/articleshow/5293935.cms

The High Court of Justice in Israel is weighing the question of who sits where on public buses.

The dispute centers on routes that run through traditional haredi neighborhoods, where men sit in the front and women in the back.

The court set a Dec. 27 deadline for the Transport Minister Yisrael Katz of the center-right Likud party to present a position on gendersegregated seating.

Last month, the US-based New Israel Fund launched a "Say no to the back of the bus," campaign, urging people to call, fax or email Katz and ask him to reject public buses with segregated seating. Last week a New Israel Fund spokesperson said close to 250 people had told the New Israel Fund that they had contacted Katz.

She added, "I'm sure not going to tell some Israeli what to do about a zoning dispute in Rehovot, but when Orthodox rabbis…attempt to legislate gender segregation, it's something we have to be concerned about."

http://www.nif.org/media-center/nif-in-the-news/protest-targets.html

Ninety percent of the country's Jewish adults, including 81% of the Orthodox, support the elimination or limitation of gender segregated "mehadrin" bus lines, according to a survey conducted by the Smith Research Institute on behalf of Hiddush-For Religious Freedom and Equality. 

Furthermore, 71% of the public view the bus lines as degrading to women. The poll was conducted between the 16th and 18th of December among a sample group of 500 respondents.

The survey also portrays an increase of some 10% in opposition to such bus lines. A preliminary survey on the matter that was conducted in July, showed that 80% of those polled called for eliminating or limiting the mehadrinbus lines. 

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1261364519884&pagename=JPArticle/ShowFull

A mock "chastity squad" divided the walking routes leading up the government offices in Jerusalem for men and women on Sunday morning in protest against the segregated bus lines in public transportation in the capital.

A Belgian Muslim woman was ordered to pay 200 euros ($300) for wearing a burka, a Islamic outfit that covers everything but the eyes, in a public place, the La Capital paper reported on December 10.

She was initially ordered to pay a 35-euro fine for violating a local ban on covering faces in public places. 

When the woman was caught wearing the outfit the second time, she was fined 200 euros, but refused to pay and went to court. 

"The rule is the rule, and we must obey it," local mayor Vincent De Wolf said. 

One Law for All Campaign is pleased to announce the winners of 2009’s art competition, Passion for Freedom,
which was organised to promote universal and equal rights and expose the discriminatory nature of religious laws.

For the images of the artworks please visit the link below.I urge you to support these artists.

http://www.onelawforall.org.uk/art-competition-winners/

Même si les spécialistes religieux s’accordent à reconnaître que le port du voile intégral ne fait l’objet d’aucune recommandation coranique, il n’appartient pas au politique de piocher dans leur argumentaire pour justifier son positionnement. S’approprier ce référentiel serait une faute pure et simple de jugement. Puisque la France est une société laïque séparant l’Etat du religieux, c’est bien au cœur de la sphère publique qu’il nous faut façonner notre jugement.

La burqa est aussi une atteinte à la dignité humaine. Elle concerne tout individu dans la mesure où elle place la femme à un rang de subalterne. Car une femme dont on ne peut lire les expressions du visage perd de son humanité. Car une femme qui se voit interdire le port de certains vêtements perd, aussi, de sa liberté. L’homme n’étant pas concerné par le port de la burqa, celle qui la porte est reléguée d’emblée à son seul et unique statut de femme sans que l’on puisse lire, sur son visage ou son corps, d’autres caractéristiques de son individualité. La République française, qui porte en son sein l’égalité homme-femme, ne peut l’accepter.

Cairo Egypt's women have already made inroads into several one-time domains of men. But a suggestion to allow women to recite Islam's holy book the Quran in public has triggered sharp differences among Muslim clerics in this country recently swept by a wave of Islamism.

More than two years ago, Egypt appointed its first women judges. However, a vigorous campaign to empower women, led by Mubarak's wife, has faced stiff opposition from Muslim fundamentalists, say observers.

Official ceremonies are usually opened with verses from the Quran, which are always recited by male shaikhs.

Likewise, Egypt's Muslims usually hire male reciters to read from the Holy Quran in the presence of male mourners in memory of their departed relatives. Never have women reciters been seen doing this.

"Women should have the right to recite the Holy Quran in public," said Souad Saleh, a well-known woman Muslim preacher. She told the same seminar that women's voices are not enticing and as such should not be suppressed

 http://gulfnews.com/news/region/egypt/egyptian-women-reciting-quran-in-spotlight-1.571065

On one hand she identifies herself strongly as an Israeli, but at the same time she has Palestinian relatives with whom she empathizes. They don't understand why she can't do more to alleviate their plight, she tells the group of about 60 people.

she shed her religious head covering. Following her participation in Strive Israel, a government-sponsored course, the high-school graduate entered the workforce as a secretary.

"I have my own journey, and was religious for five years. I was in Mecca. But since my divorce I chose another journey in my life. There was a theme, and it didn't work. When I decided to get a divorce, I decided to work and study," she says. "One of the reasons that I took off the religious clothes was that I needed to work and it wasn't simple. Big changes happened quickly.

"My focus was to believe in myself that I could find work that I can develop in, that I can prove myself,"

"The important thing that I would like to add is how important it is for me as a Palestinian Arab Israeli woman to show the world, and especially to my community, that no matter what our life situation looks like, or what our difficulties are, as long as we believe in ourselves and our capabilities we can go far.

Trovo molto interessante che lo stesso imam coraggioso che prende posizione contro il burqa sia, al contempo, fautore di dialogo ed amicizia con la comunità ebraica. Sono entrambe atteggiamenti di grande apertura mentale.

Hassen Chalghoumi, whose mosque stands in a northern Paris suburb where many Muslims live, said women who wanted to cover their faces should move to Saudi Arabia or other Muslim countries where that was a tradition.

"Yes, I am for a legal ban of the burqa, which has no place in France, a country where women have been voting since 1945," Hassen Chalghoumi, 36, told the daily Le Parisien.

Chalghoumi, who has received death threats for his promotion of dialogue with Jews, said that full face veils had no basis in Islam and "belong to a tiny minority tradition reflecting an ideology that scuttles the Muslim religion."

"The burqa is a prison for women, a tool of sexist domination and Islamist indoctrination," said Chalghoumi, whose mosque stands in Drancy, site of a wartime camp where Jews were detained before transport to Nazi concentration camps.

"Having French nationality means wanting to take part in society, at school, at work," he said.

"But with a bit of cloth over their faces, what can these women share with us? If they want to wear the veil, they can go to a country where it's the tradition, like Saudi Arabia."

An imam in north-eastern Spain has been charged with threatening a woman who refused to wear an Islamic headscarf or abide by certain Islamic customs

The prosecutors are seeking a five-year jail sentence for Mohammed Benbrahim, a Moroccan, on charges of slander, coercion and menacing behaviour against fellow Moroccan Muslim Fatima Ghailan. The two live in Cunit, a town in Catalonia, a region with a sizable Muslim population.

In a statement to the court in the nearby town of Vendrells, Mrs Ghailan, 31, said Benbrahim had harassed her and campaigned to have her removed from her job in the town hall's cultural department purely because she had a job, dressed in a Western style, drove a car and associated with non-Muslims.

She said the imam and his supporters also pressured her husband and children.

Meglio di niente.

The government declares that burkas and niqabs do not belong in Danish society but maintains existing rules instead of proposing new legislation to ban the religious garments.

Under the current legislation, schools can require teachers and pupils to make their faces visible and public employers can require the same of home helpers, social workers and educators. Social service caseworkers can require that a client’s face is not covered when her case is being attended, and the same goes for any identification procedures, such as entry or exit on public transport.

Finance Minister Claus Hjort Frederiksen and Interior and Social Affairs Minister Karen Ellemann are now scheduled to meet with Local Government Denmark and the Association of Danish Regions to ensure that the current rules are fully implemented.

Una buona notizia.

Free speech advocates were rejoicing Monday after a Malaysian court quashed a government ban on a book about the challenges facing Muslim women.

In a country where human rights organizations say that government censorship pervades many parts of public life, the decision was hailed as a victory for freedom of expression.

“We were hoping, we were praying that this would mark a good day for all Malaysians,” said Professor Norani Othman, the editor of the banned book, “Muslim Women and the Challenges of Islamic Extremism,” a collection of essays by international scholars. “It’s a good day for academic freedom.”

In July 2008, the Ministry of Home Affairs banned the book, published in 2005 by Sisters in Islam, a Malaysian nongovernmental organization, on the grounds that it was “prejudicial to public order” and that it could confuse Muslims, particularly Muslim women.

Sisters in Islam filed a judicial review in the Kuala Lumpur High Court in December 2008 on the basis that the ban was unconstitutional because it infringed upon freedom of speech and religion and gender equality.

He ordered the government to pay court costs incurred by Sisters in Islam.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/world/asia/26malaysia.html

Ci sono ovviamente alcune lodevoli eccezioni in seno al Parti socialiste come Aurélie Filippetti.

Parce que le Parti Socialiste a déclaré vendredi qu’il ne voterait pas les propositions de la Mission Parlementaire sur le port du voile intégral, nous avons protesté ce matin devant le siège du Parti, rue Solférino, pour demander une clarification de leur position et le soutien à la mission parlementaire.

Nous sommes venues dire au deuxième Parti de France et à toutes les forces progressistes de ne pas abandonner les femmes face à la violence et aux forces obscurantistes

Le Parti Socialiste ne peut participer pendant plusieurs mois à cette mission d’information et esquiver toutes prises de décisions. Etre contre la burqa c’est avoir le courage politique d’agir, c’est avoir une position claire !

Di seguito la reazione della Filippetti:

La burqa n’est pas un phénomène religieux, ce n’est pas une prescription de l’islam. C’est une dérive sectaire et une insulte à la dignité de la personne humaine à travers l’humiliation de la femme. Les musulmans et les musulmanes ne veulent pas être assimilées à celles qui portent la burqa ou à ceux qui les obligent à les porter, et l’ensemble de la collectivité nationale ne veut pas voir de burqa dans ses rues.

 Moi je suis claire : la burqa n’a pas sa place dans notre République. Je suis donc favorable à une loi l’interdisant sur l’ensemble de notre territoire, y compris sur la voie publique. C’est une atteinte insupportable à la dignité de la femme et de tous ceux qui sont amenés à croiser des individus ainsi dissimulés dans cette prison de tissu.

 Par ailleurs, nous continuerons ces interpellations en direction de toutes les forces progressistes du pays, demandons aujourd’hui au Parti Socialiste d’écouter le courage d’Aurélie Filippetti et de soutenir le rapport de la mission parlementaire auquel ils ont participé pendant 6 mois!

Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said definitively on Thursday that he is against introducing legislation which would ban women from wearing burqas.

“We don’t support creating a law to regulate it, it should be a free choice. It would only turn a rarely occurring problem into something bigger than it is. However, it may be relevant to have rules in certain workplaces for purely professional reasons but it's not something that should be solved through legislation,” Qarlsson told TT.

Reinfeldt highlighted the need for a society-wide debate that is not just restricted to the issue of burqas.

http://www.thelocal.se/24654/20100128/

Dovrebbe essere ovvio ma vista la situazione in Arabia Saudita è già una grande aprtura. Con l'auspicio che si passi dalle dichiarazioni ai fatti.

Following the incident, columnists in the Saudi press wrote that the lesson to be learned here is that girls must be taught to swim – and to drive. One of the prominent responses was by Sheikh Ahmad bin 'Abd Al-'Aziz ibn Baz, an Islamic affairs researcher and the son of former Saudi mufti Sheikh 'Abd Al-'Aziz ibn Baz (1912-1999). The latter issued a fatwa in 1990 which prohibited women from driving; his son now argues that freedom of movement is one of the rights that Islam gives women, and that the 1990 fatwa is no longer valid. 

In an interview on Al-Arabiya TV, ibn Baz stated that his father's 1990 fatwa was issued during the first Gulf War based on national and security considerations, but that since then the reality has changed: "Rulings on contemporary issues are made based on an examination of the reality, [and] the reality can change with the time and place and with the people and circumstances [involved]. Therefore, fatwas can change with the times... I am not saying that my father's fatwas were deficient... I [only] mean to say that my father issued a fatwa for a specific person in specific circumstances, and this fatwa does not necessarily apply to another person just because there is some similarity [between the two cases]. I mean to say that the circumstances and times may be different, so one cannot extrapolate [from one case to another]...

"Teach your daughters to swim, [and let them] wear clothing that won't impede them from moving swiftly when it is necessary to do so – and do not heed those voices that have turned the [principle] of concealing [the woman], however well-intentioned, into fetters that lead to her weakness and helplessness..

"As a society, we have taken our time in letting women learn to drive, at least in order to give them an opportunity to try to save themselves and their children in time of disaster. Moreover, what would have happened if the man of the house himself was in danger? [In that case, his wife] would have had to save his life and the lives of their children. Wouldn't that be better than calling the rescue squad and then sitting and waiting to die?...

http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/189/0/3929.htm

E' interessante che sia proprio una donna di origini turche a lanciare il dibattito.

“The burka is a full-body prison that deeply threatens human rights,”she told daily Frankfurter Rundschau. “It would be an important signal for Germany to ban the burka.”

A burka ban in German should include schools, universities, and high-security zones such as banks and airports, she said. 

Meanwhile the Free Democrats' integration expert Hartfrid Wolff called the burka a particular form of discrimination that courts should not tolerate. 

http://www.thelocal.de/politics/20100128-24873.html

Davvero è deprimente e sconcertante vedere come, persino all'interno di un'organizzazione universalmente riconosciuta per la lotta per i diritti umani come Amnesty International, la corrente del relativismo culturale riesca a prendere il sopravvento e a mettere a tacere le voci di dissenso, come quelle di Gita, una autentica femminista.

Gita Sahgal, head of the gender unit at Amnesty’s international secretariat, believes that collaborating with Moazzam Begg, a former British inmate at Guantanamo Bay, “fundamentally damages” the organisation’s reputation.

In an email sent to Amnesty’s top bosses, she suggests the charity has mistakenly allied itself with Begg and his “jihadi” group, Cageprisoners, out of fear of being branded racist and Islamophobic.

Sahgal, who has researched religious fundamentalism for 20 years, has decided to go public because she feels Amnesty has ignored her warnings for the past two years about the involvement of Begg in the charity’s Counter Terror With Justice campaign.

“I believe the campaign fundamentally damages Amnesty International’s integrity and, more importantly, constitutes a threat to human rights,” Sahgal wrote in an email to the organisation’s leaders on January 30. “To be appearing on platforms with Britain’s most famous supporter of the Taliban, whom we treat as a human rights defender, is a gross error of judgment.”

 Sahgal, 53, is not the only critic of Begg at Amnesty. In 2008 a board member of its US arm opposed Begg’s appearance, via videolink, at its AGM, but was overruled.

 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/afghanistan/article7017810.ece

In an email to her colleagues at Amnesty on January 30 she wrote: 
“I believe the campaign fundamentally damages Amnesty International’s integrity and, more importantly, constitutes a threat to human rights. To be appearing on platforms with Britain’s most famous supporter of the Taliban, whom we treat as a human rights defender, is a gross error of judgment.”

STOP PRESS: 16.53 Sunday - Gita Sahgal has been suspended

 http://www.spectator.co.uk/martinbright/5757557/amnesty-international-moazzam-begg-and-the-bravery-of-gita-sahgal.thtml

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/david_aaronovitch/article7019817.ece

Within a few hours of the article being published, Amnesty had suspended me from my job.

The tragedy here is that the necessary defence of the torture standard has been inexcusably allied to the political legitimization of individuals and organisations belonging to the Islamic Right.

  I have been a human rights campaigner for over three decades, defending the rights of women and ethnic minorities, defending religious freedom and the rights of victims of torture, and campaigning against illegal detention and state repression. I have raised the issue of the association of Amnesty International with groups such as Begg’s consistently within the organisation. I have now been suspended for trying to do my job and staying faithful to Amnesty’s mission to protect and defend human rights universally and impartially.

 http://www.spectator.co.uk/martinbright/5759197/gita-sahgal-a-statement.thtml

http://fleshisgrass.wordpress.com/2010/02/07/defend-gita-sahgal-from-her-employers-amnesty-international/

Immigrants should sign a 'no burka' contract before being allowed to live in France, the country's families minister has said.

It would be added to an 'integration agreement' that all newcomers already have to commit to, which also bans forced marriages and polygamy.

Nadine Morano said: 'Equality between men and women is a fundamental principle of French society.

'This applies to polygamy, forced marriages, female mutilation and the full-face veil.'

Brava Isabelle! 

« Cette jupe est un manifeste qui plus que jamais doit être portée. Cette jupe c'est ce que portent des milliers de jeunes filles et de femmes pour affirmer qu'elles refusent que l'on confonde l'Islam avec l'aliénation et l'assujettissement », a déclaré Isabelle Adjani. « Qu'elle soit courte ou qu'elle soit longue, son symbole peut nous aider à gagner une bataille contre l'obscurantisme [...] Alors cette jupe, c'est justement l'anti-niqab, l'anti-burqa », a -t-elle ajouté.

Un discours longuement applaudi par le public des Globes de Cristal.  

http://www.femina.fr/actualites/isabelle-adjani-s-engage-contre-la-burqa

http://dailymotion.virgilio.it/video/xc5s8w_globes-de-cristal-2010-isabelle-adj_news

Les réactions ne se sont pas fait attendre. Mardi, le commissaire à la Diversité Yazid Sabeg a déclaré qu’Isabelle Adjani est « une femme courageuse » qui « a eu tout à fait raison d’avoir cette réaction ». Le même Yazid Sabeg a même expliqué qu’Isabelle Adjani aurait « toute sa place » dans une commission sur l’identité nationale.

http://www.francesoir.fr/societe/2010/02/10/burqa-adjani.html

Interrogée par la radio France Info sur la volonté des autorités françaises d'interdire le port de la burqa et du niqab, l'avocate iranienne Shirin Ebadi a affirmé qu'un "voile qui recouvre le visage entier n'existe même pas dans l'islam parce qu'en fait, quand on prie si tout le visage est recouvert, la prière n'est pas valide. (...) Par exemple si on va en pèlerinage à La Mecque et que les femmes ont le visage complètement couvert, ce pèlerinage n'est pas valable." "Alors, ce voile intégral, qui n'est pas musulman et qui se fonde sur de fausses traditions, peut être interdit", a-t-elle conclu.

http://www.francesoir.fr/societe/2010/02/11/interdiction-burqa.html

Ricevo da Maryam Namazie e riporto alla vostra attenzione le ultime manifestazioni dei laici, dissidenti politici e femministe iraniane.

The following news is coming from Maryam Namazie:

In one sign of this development, 12 women from outside the political system have formed their own party, with a platform built on women’s rights and a jobs program for Iraq’s more than 700,000 widows.

Iraqi women have higher rates of poverty and unemployment than men, and lower levels of education.

Ms. Mubark manages a construction company and runs the Iraqi Center for Women’s Rehabilitation and Employment, a nongovernmental organization that she said gave her a base of support, both male and female. In her walkup office in central Baghdad, she described her agenda in language that has become familiar to political campaigns around the world. “This,” she said, “is the first step for change in our country.”

 “I have literally been told, ‘Why don’t you stay at home and learn how to cook and find yourself a husband,’ ” said Ms. Gilly, who is married. “These are colleagues who are members of the same party, who supposedly embody the same values that the party values.”

“In comparison with other regional countries, Iraq is formally advanced, with many female M.P.’s and ministers,” he said. “But this is only a false bright image. In reality, Iraq is left behind other countries.”

She pointed to stirrings of change among Iraqi women. “Many women who wore the hijab for security reasons are now able to take it off, and many who were not able to drive cars are now starting to drive,” she said. “There is a change in the tone of our society.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/17/world/middleeast/17iraqwomen.html?scp=1&sq=iraqi%20women&st=cse

"Amnesty International has done its reputation incalculable damage by allying itself with Moazzam Begg and his group Cageprisoners, and holding them up as human rights advocates. It looks very much as if Amnesty's leadership is suffering from a kind of moral bankruptcy, and has lost the ability to distinguish right from wrong. It has greatly compounded its error by suspending the redoubtable Gita Sahgal for the crime of going public with her concerns. Gita Sahgal is a woman of immense integrity and distinction and I am personally grateful to her for the courageous stands she made at the time of the Khomeini fatwa against The Satanic Verses, as a leading member of the groups Southall Black Sisters and Women Against Fundamentalism. It is people like Gita Sahgal who are the true voices of the human rights movement; Amnesty and Begg have revealed, by their statements and actions, that they deserve our contempt."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article7034773.ece

Bravo Sam!

A senior executive at Amnesty International has urged the charity to admit it made a “mistake” by failing publicly to oppose the views of a former terror suspect.

Sam Zarifi, Amnesty’s Asia Pacific director, backed Gita Sahgal, an official who was suspended after revealing her concerns about Amnesty’s links to the former Guantanamo detainee, Moazzam Begg, a British citizen.

“We should be clear that some of Amnesty’s campaigning ... did not always sufficiently distinguish between the rights of detainees to be free from torture and arbitrary detention, and the validity of their views,” says Zarifi in the email, sent to his staff and dated February 10. Zarifi advised Amnesty to consider its working relationships with activists more carefully.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article7026277.ece

The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas has said it is to ban male hairdressers from working in salons where women get their hair styled.

The announcement is part of a campaign by Hamas to introduce more Islamic customs to the Gaza Strip.

The Interior Ministry have said there will be legal consequences for anyone who disobeys the new rule, but they have not specified what they might be.

Since the Islamist movement took over the Gaza Strip in 2007, they have introduced a number of rules that move toward tightening customary Islamic restrictions on the way men and women interact.

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8550445.stm

Un'ottima notizia. E speriamo che la tendenza continui.

Salwa cherche ses mots, s’interrompt. «Quand on porte le voile, on oublie qu’on l’a sur la tête. Il fait partie de nous-même. On l’a intégré comme un élément de notre personnalité. Mais pour les autres, il prend le dessus sur tout le reste. Vous êtes d’abord la muhajaba, la voilée. Le voile vous définit socialement comme un être religieux. Même si vous, vous avez l’impression de ne pas être que cela.»

Dans ce contexte d’hyper-religiosité, le geste de Rania, Salwa, Doaa, reste difficile à voir. Et pourtant : il suffit d’évoquer la question autour de soi pour que très vite, on cite l’exemple de telle ou telle, qui s’est «déhijabisée». Dans le quotidien égyptien Daily News, la journaliste Sara el-Sirgany remarque : celles qui enlèvent le voile ont souvent fait œuvre de pionnières, au début des années 90. 

Isis, elle, a quitté son voile l’été dernier. Lorsque son père, le penseur Sayed el-Qemany s’est vu menacé de mort par des islamistes, pour ses écrits théologiques jugés apostats, l’obligeant à vivre reclus, sous protection policière. Devant les anathèmes, abasourdie par la vindicte collective, Isis s’est interrogée sur la façon dont ses concitoyens pensaient l’islam. Le voile - que cette jeune ophtalmologue portait depuis trois ans, «pour faire comme tout le monde» - a synthétisé toute son amertume. Elle l’a ôté. «Je ne voulais pas avoir à leur prouver avec ça que j’étais une bonne musulmane. Je jeûne. Je prie. Mais il n’y a que moi que ça regarde.»

ania en sait quelque chose : sans son hijab, tout le monde la prend pour une copte, ces chrétiens d’Egypte qui représentent 10 % environ de la population. «Et alors ? Quel est le problème ? Ça ne me dérange pas, mais ça en dit long sur l’état de la société.»

«Ma dignité de musulmane, assure-t-elle désormais, est dans le voile moral qui protège ma vertu et ma conscience. Pas mes cheveux.»

http://www.liberation.fr/monde/0101624203-l-adieu-au-voile

Bene. Ora se invece di promettere si cominciasse a passare dalle parole ai fatti?

France is to ban the full Muslim veil to protect the dignity of women, President Sarkozy announced yesterday. 

"The full veil is contrary to the dignity of women," the President said. "The response is to ban it. The Government will table a draft law prohibiting it." 

His announcement on the Muslim veil will be well received since a strong majority of the French favour a ban, according to opinion polls. 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article7074271.ece

Al momento la legge proposta proibisce alle donne che indossano il burqa ed il niqab di accedere ai servizi amministrativi e sociali del governo. Un primo passo.

A bill tabled Wednesday will not allow government services to women wearing the niqab.

The government last week ordered that every niqab-clad woman must uncover her face to confirm her identity when applying for her medicare card. Wednesday's bill will be the first such step in North America to curtail any religious dress.

According to the bill, women seeking medical and auto insurance services will have to remove their veil, adding that face coverings will not be tolerated in people's dealings with government officials.

Speaking to the media, Quebec premier (equal to chief minister in India) Jean Charest said the step was needed for maintaining gender equality and secular character of public institutions. 

C'è chi parla e chi agisce. Pare che il Belgio faccia parte del gruppo dei concreti. Era ora. Vi aggiornerò sui futuri sviluppi.

Le code pénal va sanctionner le port de la burqa et du niqab dans les lieux publics. La majorité fédérale s’est accordée sur un texte commun, jeudi. Il devrait être voté en séance plénière de la Chambre dès la mi-avril.

Toute personne qui se présente, dans les lieux accessibles au public, « le visage masqué ou dissimulé en tout ou en partie, de manière telle qu’elle ne soit pas identifiable », sera passible d’une amende de 15 à 25 euros et/ou d’un emprisonnement d’un à sept jours. Seules les exceptions autorisées par la loi ou les règlements (les motards, pompiers, soudeurs…) échapperont au constat d’infraction pénale.

Le texte amende la proposition de loi qu’avait déposée le député Daniel Bacquelaine (MR), le 1er décembre 2009. Il ne fait plus référence à « un vêtement », mais limite la liberté d’aller et venir sur la voie publique, si on n’y est pas immédiatement identifiable, comme le suggérait la proposition de loi déposée par Georges Dallemagne (CDH), le 24 février dernier.

« Le PS, qui n’était pas favorable à une loi, mais privilégiait les interdictions au niveau communal, semble avoir changé d’avis », constate Georges Dallemagne : André Frédéric (PS), président la commission de l’Intérieur, a signé le texte commun.

Les nouvelles dispositions pénales seront votées en commission le 31 mars, avant d’être soumises au suffrage de la Chambre, à la mi-avril. Si c’est le cas, dès l’été, la burqa (le voile facial intégral de tradition afghane) et le niqab (qui laisse juste apparaître les yeux) ne seront plus tolérés, ni sur la voie publique, ni dans les édifices publics ou les commerces. Pas plus que dans les grands hôtels fréquentés par les princes saoudiens.

http://www.lesoir.be/actualite/belgique/2010-03-19/accord-de-majorite-jeudi-pour-bannir-la-burqa-759592.shtml

Le Premier ministre a appelé une loi qui aille "le plus loin possible sur la voie de l'interdiction générale" du voile intégral, dans un discours lundi devant les parlementaires UMP.

http://fr.news.yahoo.com/63/20100330/tpl-burqa-franois-fillon-veut-aller-le-p-5cc6428.html

Le ministre de l'Intérieur Brice Hortefeux a indiqué mardi, lors de la séance de questions au gouvernement à l'Assemblée nationale, qu'il fallait "aller le plus loin possible" vers l'interdiction du voile intégral en France.
"Nous sommes déterminés à aller le plus loin possible sur la voie de l'interdiction générale du voile intégral, dans le respect des principes généraux du droit", a affirmé Brice Hortefeux en répondant à Marie-Louise Fort (UMP, Yonne) et Nicolas Perruchot (NC, Loir-et-Cher).
Le gouvernement "présentera un projet de loi aussi volontariste que possible", a poursuivi le ministre de l'Intérieur, après avoir rappelé les limites soulignées dans le rapport que le Conseil d'Etat a remis au Premier ministre.
"Nous devons aller le plus loin possible, car nous ne voulons plus que demain des femmes entièrement voilées aillent chercher leurs enfants à l'école, se présentent aux guichets des services publics ou prennent les transports en commun", a assuré Brice Hortefeux.
"Le port du voile intégral est une expression radicale et du communautarisme et la République ne peut pas accepter ni le radicalisme ni le repli communautaire", a relevé le ministre.
Pour lui, "c'est tout simplement une question de dignité, d'égalité, de sécurité", a-t-il ajouté.

"Je vous proposerai d'aller le plus loin possible sur la voie d'une interdiction générale du voile intégral dans le respect des principes généraux du droit", a-t-il indiqué. Le chef du gouvernement a assuré que la proposition de résolution déposée sur le même sujet par le groupe UMP à l'Assemblée nationale "recueille le soutien du gouvernement". La proposition de résolution est un texte non contraignant visant à réaffirmer des principes généraux.

http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/actualite/politique/20100330.OBS1411/voile-le-conseil-d-etat-rejette-l-interdiction-generale-et-absolue.html

The first Golden Butterfly, Amnesty International's A Matter of ACT Award (€5,000) for the most imposing and inspiring human rights defender or organisation, goes to lawyer, activist and former prisoner of conscience Shadi Sadr. Sadr (1974) is an expert in the field of women's rights in Iran. She was in charge of a counselling centre for women, that has meanwhile been closed by the Iranian government, and developed an action-oriented web site that campaigns for equal rights for women. The Iranian authorities arrested her on several occasions.

http://www.moviesthatmatterfestival.nl/

Shadi Sadr’s human rights activities are depicted in Farid Haerinejad and Mohammad Kazemi’s film Women in Shroud, a documentary that follows the struggles of a number of women’s rights activists and their campaign to stop the harsh law of stoning in Iran.

Shadi Sadr has announced that the reward belongs to all the activists involved in the “Stop Stoning Campaign.”

Ms. Sadr has also announced that she will donate the €5,000 monetary award included in the prize to a project that proposes to document the memoirs of women’s struggles in Iran during the first decade following the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

Shadi Sadr, who has been arrested on several occasions by the Iranian authorities, is an Iranian lawyer, activist and former prisoner of conscience and one of the founders of the “Stop Stoning Campaign.”

 http://planet-iran.com/index.php/news/13512

Women's civil society groups were noticeable by their absence from the landmark Haiti donor conference on 31 March, which secured pledges of US$5.3 billion over the next two years to support the country’s post-quake recovery.

Their lack of a presence at the meeting was indicative of a broader missing voice in Haiti’s long-term reconstruction prospects, gender activists argued.

“Why are we not there right now, where are the women at this conference?” questioned Marie St. Cyr, a Haitian human rights advocate. “We still don’t have full participation and we certainly don’t have full inclusion. Haitian women are still being raped…they are supporting more than half of the households, and yet they are not being heard.”

Women in Haiti, however, do not have the luxury of waiting for action, St. Cyr noted. Before the earthquake, they were running half the households – and those numbers have now risen, with women taking in children from other families.

The issue of sexual violence also remains an enormously grave, though largely undocumented one.

Violence against women is not surprising in Haiti's male dominated society rife with gender stereotypes. Sadly, efforts have not been made to secure equal participation and development of women at any level. For example, of the 18 ministries governing Haiti, only two were headed by women pre-earthquake, and the level of professional women working in Haiti's public administration positions barely reached a dismal 7.2%.

All this must change in the rebuilding process of Haiti to ensure sustainable development and prosperity. A change of culture must also happen within the highest levels of decision makers focused on Haiti's recovery plans in and outside of the country to recognize the urgent need to ensure gender equality in the establishment of Haitian institutions, norms and policies

A group of individuals in the Haitian Diaspora and international women's rights advocates recently formed Poto Mitan: Rebuilding Haiti, an initiative to promote the rights of women and girls. Working with women's groups in Haiti, they also joined forces with Rele Fanm Ak Fi (A Call to Women and Girls): Haiti Gender Equality Collaborative to draft a preliminary "shadow report" that maps out a blueprint for putting women at the center of Haiti's recovery.

The High Court yesterday in a ruling said none can force women, working at public and private educational institutions, to wear veils or cover their heads against their wills.

The court directed the education ministry to ensure the execution of its order.

It is their personal choice if they wear scarves or cover their heads, the court said.

The HC asked the education secretary to make sure that women are not harassed by their superiors at educational institutions.

The verdict came after a writ petition was filed seeking HC directive following a newspaper report that an upazila education officer of Kurigram insulted a female teacher by making a disgraceful remark in June last year.

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=133602

The Court observed “It is the personal choice of a woman to wear a veil. If any person tries to compel a woman to wear a veil against her consent or will that amounts to a violation of her fundamental rights as enshrined in the Constitution”.

The Court observed “It is the personal choice of a woman to wear a veil . If any person tries to compel a woman to wear a veil against her consent or will that amounts to a violation of her fundamental rights as enshrined in the Constitution. It is her personal choice to do so or not to do so. In Bangladesh there has been no uniform practice of veiling or head covering among women. In recent years there have been reported instances of attempts to forcibly impose this not only by private persons but also by government officials. The instant case demonstrates the harassment of women and girls in public spaces, schools, educations and places of higher education both public and private.”

http://www.sacw.net/article1394.html

Sisters in Islam is indeed very happy with the decision by Sultan of Pahang, Duli Yang Maha Mulia Tuanku Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah, to commute Kartika’s caning sentence to community service.”

http://www.sistersinislam.org.my/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=998&Itemid=1

Kartika, 33, was spared the cane when the Sultan of Pahang, Sultan Ahmad Shah commuted her sentence to community service.

"Thank God. I am prepared although I have be away from my two children for three weeks. My sister and mother will take care of them.

"I will do whatever is asked of me. I am surprised but accepted the decision made by the Sultan of Pahang. I thank my family for the support," she told reporters here.

Kartika said she will care for two boys, aged six and eight years with a hole-in-the-heart and autism, after completion of her punishment.

The part-time model arrived at Pahang Islamic Department at 8.45am and was briefed on what was expected of her.

http://www.mmail.com.my/content/32253-kartika-starts-community-service-childrens-home

Iranian blogger, journalist and women’s rights activist Jila Bani Yaghoob was awarded the "Reporters Without Borders, Freedom of expression” prize for her blog “We are journalists” (http://www.zhila.org/spip.php?article217) at the sixth international “Best of the Blogs” event held in Berlin by German radio Deutsche Welle from 13 to 15 April.

“Her Persian-language blog deals with the news in Iran, social issues and the subject of women. Jila is in the forefront of the struggle for freedom of expression in her country. She and her family have already paid a high price for her commitment. Reporters Without Borders is proud to award her this prize and through her pay tribute to all Iranian bloggers and journalists who have been arrested, imprisoned for driven into exile these past months”, the organisation said.

http://en.rsf.org/iran-iranian-journalist-jila-bani-15-04-2010,37030.html

French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday ordered legislation that would ban women from wearing Islamic veils that hide the face in the street and other public places. In seeking to forbid the garment from public view, Sarkozy defied the advice of experts sought by the government who warned that such a broad ban risked contravening France's constitution

Sarkozy has repeatedly said that such clothing oppresses women and is "not welcome" in France.

The decision to seek a full ban, rather than a limited ban, came as a surprise. After a Cabinet meeting just a week ago, the government spokesman announced a decision for legislation that bans the veil but takes into account conclusions on the matter by the Council of State, France's highest administrative office.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100421/ap_on_re_eu/eu_france_muslim_veils

L'ironia è un ottima arma. Le donne non vestite secondo modestia provocherebbero terremoti. In risposta l'arguta studentessa invita le donne ad indossare scollature mozzafiato che, sicuramente, causeranno terremoti micidiali.

Time for a Boobquake.

On Monday, April 26th, I will wear the most cleavage-showing shirt I own. Yes, the one usually reserved for a night on the town. I encourage other female skeptics to join me and embrace the supposed supernatural power of their breasts. Or short shorts, if that's your preferred form of immodesty. With the power of our scandalous bodies combined, we should surely produce an earthquake. If not, I'm sure Sedighi can come up with a rational explanation for why the ground didn't rumble. And if we really get through to him, maybe it'll be one involving plate tectonics.

http://www.blaghag.com/2010/04/in-name-of-science-i-offer-my-boobs.html

McCreight said that although "Boobquake" was intended was a joke, sometimes humorous responses to "hateful" comments can be valuable.

"When someone makes a statement that you can scientifically test, that immodest clothing causes earthquakes, then we should go ahead and test it," she said. "It's sort of tongue-in-cheek, but I think that light-hearted mockery is sometimes the best way to deal with things like this."

On the "Boobquake" Facebook page, women from Canada, the United Kingdom and South Africa have pledged support. And McCreight has even received e-mails from Iranian women cheering her on.

Vive la Belgique! E ora speriamo che altre nazioni si decidano magari velocemente a seguire l'esempio dei belgi che hanno battuto ul tempo i cugini francesi.

Vi aggiornerò sugli sviluppi della legge fino alla auspicabile approvazione finale.

Belgium's lower house of parliament has voted to ban the wearing of full Islamic veils such as the burqa in public, paving the way for Belgium to become the first country in Europe to enforce such a ban. 

In the lower house of federal parliament, 136 deputies voted to ban nationwide clothes or veils that do not allow the wearer to be fully identified, including the full-face niqab and burqa.
   
There were two abstentions. No one voted against.
   
The upper house of parliament has two weeks to raise any objections to the decision.

Exceptions could be allowed for certain festivities like carnivals if municipal authorities decide to grant them.
   
People who ignore the new law could face a fine of 15-25 euros (20-34 dollars) and/or a jail sentence of up to seven days, unless they have police permission to wear the garments.
   
All governing parties and the opposition agreed on the move -- most on the basis that people cannot be recognised wearing the clothing.

http://www.france24.com/en/20100429-belgium-lawmakers-vote-ban-full-islamic-veil-public-burqa-europe

A famous political online community forum is pushing for liberal MPs to submit a question to the Minister of Interior Sheikh Jaber Al-Sabah on why women wearing niqabs are allowed to drive without being fined. According to a law passed in 2006, women covering their faces are not allowed to drive cars in Kuwait, but this law has not been put into practice

However, a lot of supporters of this law expressed that it needs to be applied if the government insists on going by the rules. The niqab is arguably not a religious must; it is a tradition inherited from the old days through life in the desert.

Latifa Al-Ajmi, 27, is a woman who wears the niqab and drives. She says that it does not bother her to drive while wearing the niqab most days. "When there are check points, police men ask me to reveal my face when I present them with my driving license. It is a necessity; they must know who is driving the car. I have no problem revealing my face then," she said, stressing that a niqab is not usually worn
religiously.

http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=NzQ5NTA2MTk3

Forse ho la memoria corta. Ma non è la libertà di amare uno dei pilastri della società democratica e della libertà delle donne? E allora perchè mai si dovrebbe tacere di fronte a simili violenze?

A Campbell woman of Yemeni descent says she was abducted by her parents and taken to Hermitage, Pa., where they threatened to send her back to her homeland.

The victim, 32, told police she was leaving a doctor’s appointment at an office on U.S. Route 224 when her father came up behind her, grabbed her in a bear hug and put her in the back seat of her car.

The father then got into the driver’s seat, and her mother in the back seat with her. They drove to the Sheetz gas station in Hermitage.

No charges have been filed.

“I’m still gathering information and still trying to talk to witnesses,” said Boardman Detective Glenn Patton.

The woman told police that her parents, who are Muslim, don’t approve of her marriage to a Christian man.

Patrolman John Gulu, who coaches the daughter’s softball team, was able to reach the woman on her cell phone.

“The first thing he asked was, ‘Are you OK? Are you safe?’” Rusnak said. “She said, ‘No.’”

To keep from raising her parents’ suspicions, Gulu asked yes-and-no questions, interspersed with questions about softball in case the woman’s parents listened, the detective said.

Un primo piccolo passo.

"All of France will say 'non' to the full veil and will ask that this practice be prohibited on the territory of the republic," speaker Bernard Accoyer told reporters.

Supporters of the ban argue they are not attacking religious freedoms but rather upholding women's rights, with one prominent group saying the new law will liberate young Muslim girls growing up in France.

President Nicolas Sarkozy's right-wing UMP party and the opposition Socialists along with other smaller parties have all agreed to back the five-point resolution in the National Assembly.

Lawmakers will declare that "radical practices which violate the dignity and equality between men and women, such as the wearing of the full veil, are contrary to the values of the republic."

Parliament "deems it necessary that all useful means be put in place to ensure the protection of women who are subjected to violence and pressure and in particular are forced to wear the full veil," the resolution says.

 http://www.france24.com/en/20100511-france-burqa-niqab-parliament-assembly-national-contrary-values-national-resolution

A French teaching assistant whom the Iranian regime accused of spying for the west said she was "very, very happy" to be back on home turf today after a Tehran court commuted a prison sentence that had kept her in Iran for 10 months.

Making a brief but emotional statement at the Elysée palace, Clotilde Reiss, 24, thanked various French and Iranian figures – including the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy – for supporting her through the ordeal and securing her release.

But she said her relief was tainted with grief for fellow inmates of Tehran's notorious Evin prison who had not escaped with their lives. "I am thinking chiefly of two men who were executed in January 2010 and who were at my sides during the public trial that you all saw on the television," she said. "Now that I am free in my country, my thoughts are with them."

The Kentucky Domestic Violence Association (KDVA) offers no-interest microloans to Individual Development Account (IDA) participants and secures the loan with the borrower's IDA savings. The microloan program was launched in January 2009 with grant support from the Allstate Foundation.

The microloan program builds on KDVA's existing IDA program, taking the concept of asset accumulation one step further by helping their clients build credit. Women who experience domestic violence often face financial burdens that make them vulnerable to having poor or no credit. They may have been barred from having their own accounts or may have left a spouse or partner who had poor credit. Many also have developed poor financial behaviors after years of no access to their own money. 

To date, only one participant has missed consecutive payments. 

http://www.creditbuildersalliance.org/toolkit-innovations/kentucky-domestic-violence-association.html

http://www.kdva.org/

French NGO “Ni Putes Ni Soumises” had planned a public debate on the eve of the presentation of the draft law that seeks a complete ban on the burqa, the full Islamic veil. However, pro-burqa supporters, who the police have failed to identify, violently thwarted the NGO’s efforts.

The debate, which began in a tense atmosphere, was allegedly disrupted by members of Sheikh Yassin, a pro-Palestinian group, forcing the organizers to call for police intervention, as insults turned into fistfights. The rioters had already fled upon the arrival of the police.

Manuel Valls, member of the French Socialist Party (PS) and supporter of the ban on the burqa, was among those present when the riots broke out. According to him, instead of dissuading him, the incident has only given impetus to his belief that the law should be established. "I feel that this case comes to try the Republic and its representatives and I for one won’t be intimidated”, he said.

"I think those who had doubts before tonight’s debate understood, as they left (the meeting), the need for a law that says enough to those who exploit Islam and reduce women to silence," added Sihem Habchi, President of Ni Putes Ni Soumises.

http://en.afrik.com/article17666.html

Veils that cover the face "cannot be tolerated in any public place," said a statement issued by the council.

"Given the damage it produces on those rules which allow the life in community, ensure the dignity of the person and equality between sexes, this practice, even if it is voluntary, cannot be tolerated in any public place," the French government said Wednesday.

The bill envisions a fine of 150 euros ($190) and/or a citizenship course as punishment for wearing a face-covering veil.

Forcing a woman to wear a niqab or a burqa would be punishable by a year in prison or a 15,000-euro ($19,000) fine, the government said, calling it "a new form of enslavement that the republic cannot accept on its soil."

The measure would take effect six months after passage, giving authorities time to try to persuade women who veil themselves voluntarily to stop.

  http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/05/19/france.burqa.ban/

Ma guarda! Ma come sono cattive le donne ebree! Tutte malvage e guerrafondaie vero? Caspia, verissimo. Come è vero che la terra ruota attorno alla luna!

2008 recipient of The Charles Bronfman Prize, is dedicated to improving the safety and security of survivors of Darfur’s genocide. As Director of Jewish World Watch’s landmark Solar Cooker Project (SCP), Andres has reduced the risk of sexual violence against refugee women by providing an alternative cooking option, enabling them to limit searching for firewood outside the relative safety of refugee camps.

My parents and grandparents taught me that it is an obligation to repair the world, and to "not stand idly by when others are dying." SCP allows me to incorporate these values into my work and life every day.

http://www.jewishworldwatch.org/refugeerelief/pdfs/JWW_FactSheet_Jan10_v5_lr.pdf

http://jta.org/news/article/2010/05/24/2739287/humanitarian-snapshot-rachel-andres

The move makes the northern city of Lleida — population of 135,000 — the first in Spain to regulate the garments that have triggered debate across Europe.

Lleida's town hall passed the ban Friday with 23 votes in favor, one against and two abstentions.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iXTeJXk6d0HDxNRKn-1F_PM0GvSgD9FVR2KG0

Five female news presenters at the pan-Arab Al-Jazeera satellite television channel have resigned over conflicts with management over dress code and other issues, a journalist there said on Sunday.

The news presenters who have reportedly quit are Jumana Namur, Lina Zahreddin, Lona al-Shibel, Julnar Mussa and Nofar Afli.

The Al-Hayat daily reported on Sunday that they had resigned in the past few days after petitioning management in January over repeated criticism from a top company official for allegedly not being conservative enough in their dress.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100530/lf_afp/qatarmediajazeerawomen

Un plauso all'Egitto!

The Cairo Administrative Court yesterday upheld the decision of the higher education minister, Hany Helal, and heads of three universities to bar women who cover their faces with a niqab from sitting in this month’s mid-year exams.

The case was filed against the higher education minister and the heads of Cairo, Ain Shams and Helwan universities, the sheikh of Al Azhar, the grand mufti and the minister of religious affairs, Mohammed Hamdi Zaqzouq.

Sheikh Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi, the grand imam of Al Azhar, banned the niqab in Al Azhar classrooms and dormitories after he forced a 12-year-old to remove her niqab. He said it did not matter as she was in a classroom full of girls and her school was run by women only.

http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100104/FOREIGN/701039884/1135

Ottimo, ora speriamo non ci mettano secoli per passare dalle parole ai fatti.

Barcelona plans to be the first large city in Spain to ban the use of the full-face Islamic veil in public buildings, its mayor announced Monday.

Jordi Hereu said he will sign a decree which will apply in all public spaces such as the city hall and municipal covered markets and creches.

"It should not be possible that someone enters into a place without being identified," the Socialist mayor said.

Una buona notizia...

Støre, head of Labour’s integration panel that’s to present its report at next year’s Party Conference, argues there’s no place for a parallel system that makes judgements based on Islamic law. His Party has also given the principle the thumbs-down.

“We’re a constitutional state based on democracy, freedom of speech and religion, as well as equal opportunities and status,” says Støre.

Norwegian law forbids cultural traditions that discriminate against women, such as forced marriage and female circumcision.

“Practices not part of Norwegian culture shouldn’t be able to obtain legitimacy from alternative court systems,” he says.

http://theforeigner.no/pages/news/stre-bans-sharia-councils/

Philip Hollobone will today attempt to steer legislation through the Commons to regulate the wearing of 'certain facial coverings'.

The Kettering MP said his Bill would make it illegal for people to cover their faces in public 'which would obviously have a big impact for those who wear full-face Islamic veils'.

'We are never going to get along with having a fully integrated society if a substantial minority insist on concealing their identity from everyone else.'

Mr Hollobone has previously described the burkha as 'offensive' and 'against the British way of life'.

His comments have attracted criticism but also a 'great deal of support', he said.

The MP said the British public like to smile and greet one another in the street but 'you simply can't have that degree of interaction with people if you can't see their face'.

His Face Coverings (Regulation) Bill had its first reading in the Commons today, a formality which allows the legislation to be printed.

During the week of 5-11 July, take stones to your city centres, universities, workplaces, and put them in a public place, with a message in support of Sakine and against stoning and executions. Ask people to send letters of protest and sign the petition opposing it. Send in any photos to be included on the Iran Solidarity blog.

Let's end this once and for all.

http://iransolidarity.blogspot.com/2010/07/on-11-july-place-stones-in-public.html

But sharia councils, which are charities, are equally harmful since their mediation differs little from arbitration. Sharia councils will frequently ask people to sign an agreement to abide by their decisions. Councils call themselves courts and the presiding imams are judges. There is neither control over the appointment of these judges nor an independent monitoring mechanism. People often do not have access to legal advice and representation. Proceedings are not recorded, nor are there any searchable legal judgements. Nor is there any real right to appeal.

There is also danger to those at risk of domestic violence. In one study, four out of 10 women attending sharia courts were party to civil injunctions against their husbands.

Rights, justice, inclusion, equality and respect are for people, not for beliefs and parallel legal systems. To safeguard the rights and freedoms of all those living in Britain, there must be one secular law for all and no religious courts.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2010/jul/05/sharia-law-religious-courts

Vergogna!

Catalonia's parliament rejected Thursday a move to ban the wearing of the Islamic burqa in public places across the Spanish region after reversing an initial vote.

A resolution moved by conservatives and centre-right nationalists was passed, but opponents said there had been a technical error and some absentees at the moment of the vote.

After the session was suspended, the parliamentary speaker ordered the vote to be put again, prompting a walk-out by the motion's supporters and a victory for its left-wing opponents.

Spain's upper house of parliament last week approved a motion calling on Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's Socialist government to ban the Islamic veil in public.

Earlier this month Justice Minister Francisco Caamano said the government planned to restrict the wearing of the veils in public places under a proposed new law on religious freedom.

Speriamo bene! Vi aggiornerò...

A woman convicted of adultery has been spared execution by stoning after Iran backed down in the face of rising international outrage.

A statement issued by the Iranian embassy in London said that 'according to information from the relevant judicial authorities in Iran [Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani] will not be executed by stoning'.

But it did not say whether Ms Ashtiani, a mother-of-two, would be spared or executed by hanging instead.

Mohammed Mostafaei, the 43-year-old's lawyer, told The Times: 'This is a positive development but nothing is clear yet.

'There have been cases in Iran of stonings being changed to hangings.

British politicians have been lending their support to efforts to stop the stoning as the international outcry increased.

Foreign Minister William Hague described stoning as a 'medieval punishment that has no place in the modern world', adding: 'If the punishment is carried out it will disgust and appal the watching world.'

Actors Emma Thompson, Colin Firth and Juliette Binoche, fashion designer Katherine Hamnett and playwright Sir David Hare are among a host of celebrities who have signed up to the campaign for her release.

Author Philip Pullman, film producer Lord Puttnam, director Sir Richard Eyre and philosopher A.C. Grayling are also backing calls for clemency.

Stoning was officially introduced into the penal code after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The vote was 335 to 1.

The measure must still go to the French Senate before it becomes law. The Senate is expected to vote on it in the week of September 20.

French people back the ban by a margin of more than four to one, the Pew Global Attitudes Project found in a survey this spring.

Some 82 percent of people polled approved of a ban, while 17 percent disapproved. That was the widest support the Washington-based think tank found in any of the five countries it surveyed.

"Given the damage it produces on those rules which allow the life in community, ensure the dignity of the person and equality between sexes, this practice, even if it is voluntary, cannot be tolerated in any public place," the French government said when it sent the measure to parliament in May.

The bill envisions a fine of 150 euros ($190) and/or a citizenship course as punishment for wearing a face-covering veil.

Forcing a woman to wear a niqab or a burqa would be punishable by a year in prison or a 15,000-euro ($19,000) fine, the government said, calling it "a new form of enslavement that the republic cannot accept on its soil."

The measure would take effect six months after passage, giving authorities time to try to persuade women who veil themselves voluntarily to stop.

 http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/07/13/france.burqa.ban/?hpt=Sbin

Alliot-Marie argued that it has nothing to do with religion or security — she argued simply that life in the French Republic "is carried out with a bare face."

"It is a question of dignity, equality and transparency," she said in a speech that avoided mentioning the words "burqa" or "Islam." Officials have taken pains to craft language that does not single out Muslims: While the proposed legislation is colloquially referred to as the "burqa ban," it is officially called "the bill to forbid covering one's face in public."

Please sign to support Sakineh! Vi invito a firmare l'appello per la salvezza di Sakineh!

 http://stopstonningnow.com/sakine/sakin284.php?nr=50326944〈=en

I who write this letter, Sajjad Ghader-zade, 22 years old, want to first of all tell you about my mother and the way she was convicted.

My mother, Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, was arrested in the city of Oskoo on charges of adultery. She was prosecuted in the Oskoo criminal court. My mother and Mr. Naser and Mr. Ali Nojumiha were each sentenced to 99 lashes there, and the sentences were fully served at the executive office on everyone convicted in this case. Then as to why the case was sent to Branch VI of Eastern Azerbaijan retribution court in Tabriz for review, I have no idea. Here my mother’s case was reviewed by five judges, after which Mr. Imani, the head of Branch VI, and two of his colleagues, based on their own wisdom sentenced my mother to death by stoning, while two others found my mother innocent of the charges and stated this verdict clearly. Mr. Mostafayi (Sakineh’s lawyer) says there are a lot of uncertainties and doubts in this case. Mr. Mostafayi refers to two judges in the panel who clearly stated that there was neither evidence nor legal grounds whatsoever in the file to sentence Mrs. Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, and the existing indications and evidence could not provide basis for any assumptions by the panel, and one accused should not stand trial twice on the same charge. The case was then sent to the Supreme Court, which unfortunately upheld the sentence. This was a summary of the case but I want to point out other uncertainties regarding the case. We have traveled more than 6 times to Tehran to visit Mr. Larijani, or Khamenei, or Ahmadi-Nezhad, and written more than a hundred times to them but have not received any response, so I have no option but reaching out to them this way. I want to ask the country’s authorities a few questions and hope they hear me.

 http://iransolidarity.blogspot.com/2010/07/letter-to-mina-ahadi-and-all-those.html

http://iransolidarity.org.uk/Sangsarha%20lst-farshad-july2010.pdf

 http://notonemoreexecution.org/

Sakine Mohammadi Ashtiani is a forty-three year old mother ofhhttp://stopstonningnow.com/sakine/sakin284.php?nr=50326944〈=enttp://stopstonningnow.com/sakine/sakin284.php?nr=50326944〈=en two children, 16 & 20 year old respectively. Both Sakine's children and her lawyer tried everything they could to stop the stoning sentence, as a result of committing adultery. However, her stoning is finalized by the Iran's court. Sakine is in Tabriz prison awaiting her imminent stoning sentence.

The barbaric act of stoning must stop now!
Do not allow our nightmare become a reality,
Protest against our mother’s stoning!

Syria has banned students and teachers at universities from wearing the niqab, the full-face veil that has grown in popularity there in recent years.

“Syria is adamant about its secularism,” says Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma. “If the next generation is going to be raised to embrace the strict Islamic values for which the niqab is the expression, it will undermine the project Syria is trying to build, of secularism and coexistence of religions. “

Syria’s Ministry of Higher Education issued the decree on Sunday, banning the facial veil from both public and private universities. A government official told Al Arabiya television that the niqab, which blocks all but the eyes from view, was “against academic principles.” Last month, the Education Ministry removed hundreds of primary and secondary teachers who wore the niqab from their teaching positions.

Secularism is particularly important to Damascus because the president comes from the minority Alawite Muslim sect.

 http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2010/0720/Veil-ban-Why-Syria-joins-Europe-in-barring-the-niqab

Syria has issued a directive banning women who wear full-face veils from attending public and private universities, the state-run news agency Sana reported on Sunday.

The directive reportedly came from the country's Minister of Higher Education, Ghaith Barakat.

The ban applies to women wearing full-face veils, not those who only wear headscarves.

  http://www.news24.com/World/News/Niqab-banned-at-Syrian-varsities-20100718

Sakineh Mohammedie Ashtiani was originally sentenced to death by stoning, but it was put on hold earlier this month after an international outcry.

In London, protesters held posters with Ashtiani's likeness while a speaker criticized Iran's treatment of her. Many demonstrating in Trafalgar Square held signs reading, "No to Stoning. No to Executions." John Lennon's "Imagine" played in the background.

In Stockholm, Sweden, protesters chanted for Ashtiani's release while calling stoning a medieval practice that must end. They also signed a large petition calling for her release.

More than 30 cities participated in "International Sakineh Mohammedie Ashtiani Day" at 2 p.m. local time. Cities holding rallies included Washington, New York, London, Venice, Paris, Berlin and Ottawa, organizers said.

Organizers hoped the rallies would help free Ashtiani and intensify the international support she gained earlier when her case was widely publicized.

"International pressure is what causes change," Ahadi said. "The authorities in Iran aren't immune to this pressure -- we want to release Ashtiani, and we think these rallies are a huge factor in doing so."

 Human rights activist Maryam Namazie said Saturday's protests are critical for freeing Ashtiani.

"Very often the regime has quietly and privately executed people even though it said it's not going to," said Namazie, spokeswoman of Iran Solidarity and One Law for All.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/07/24/iran.stoning.protest/#fbid=jcByijRag0-

The case created an international outcry when Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani initially was sentenced to death by stoning. Iran withdrew that part of the sentence earlier this month, but the mother of two could still face execution by hanging.

During a campaign rally for his party's presidential candidate, Silva appealed to Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, "to allow Brazil to grant political asylum to this woman."

"If she is causing problems there, we will welcome her here," Silva added, according to Brazil's official news service, Agencia Brasil.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100731/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_brazil_iran_stoning

“Teaching is communication, it is about being able to look each other in the eye and in the face and to be able to communicate with each other. In this context I argue that it is extremely inappropriate to allow clothing that covers the face,” Björklund, speaking in his capacity as party leader

Ann-Charlotte Eriksson, deputy chairwoman of the Swedish Teachers’ Union (Lärarförbundet), welcomed the Liberals’ approach, which she said would give teachers clear guidance

http://www.thelocal.se/28176/20100804/ 

The interfaith dispute could further anger non-Muslims who have long complained that their religious rights are being sidelined in Muslim-majority Malaysia, and may erode minority support for the government.

Malaysia's secular High Court ruled it had no jurisdiction to hear the case as Banggarma Subramaniam is a Muslim and should refer to the Islamic Shariah court, said her lawyer Gooi Hsiao Leung.

"Why must I be forced to accept Islam?" Banggarma said. "I was born an Indian, a Hindu and I remain so until I die. They have no rights over me."

The welfare department claims Banggarma was converted in 1983 by her father and that she must go to the Shariah court to verify her status.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5hs4893PMIxdfZaSmLpXlq_tn1dPw

The High Court in Penang state ruled that 28-year-old S. Banggarma, whose Muslim name is Siti Hasnah Vangarama Abdullah, was a Muslim because her parents converted the whole family in 1983.

"Parents have the right to determine the faiths of children who are below 18. It is a universal right, irrespective of religion," said judicial commissioner Yaacob Sam.

Banggarma, who has argued that she was made to convert to Islam at the age of seven when she was placed in a children's home, vowed to continue to fight the case.

"I was born a Hindu, and I want to die a Hindu," she said.

"This is not the end. After going through the grounds for the dismissal, we will seriously consider appealing this case at the Court of Appeal," said counsel Gooi Hsiao Leung.

When women’s rights activist Wajiha Al-Huwaidar flew out of Saudi Arabia last week for a holiday in Italy with her family, she was hoping for a brief respite from what she describes as the ‘gender apartheid kingdom.’

She wasn’t so lucky.

As she left, her husband received an automated SMS text message from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs informing him that his wife, legally considered his ‘dependent’ under Saudi Arabia’s strict gendered guardianship system, had left the country.

Al-Huwaidar’s husband received the same text, she learned last week, when she had left Saudi Arabia on another recent trip to Germany.

“It is sad how Saudis use technology in a way not intended to be used for,” she told The Media Line. “In Saudi Arabia, technology brings more restrictions and misery! They use it to have more control over people’s lives, especially women.”

“I am an adult woman that has been earning my own income for over a decade now but according to the Saudi government, I am a dependent until the day I die because of my gender,” Al-Huwaidar said. “I'm not sure how it works, but lately we get to be informed through our mobile phones about our bank accounts, sale ads, jobs, donation campaigns and others. I'm sure it's a new service that the government is using for different purposes. They don’t state which country the dependent left for, but simply state that they did leave.”

Nadya Khalife, the Middle East Women's Rights researcher at Human Rights Watch, said the guardianship system presents an enormous barrier to Saudi women’s freedom of movement.

“Guardianship is a really complicated system and has a great effect not only on women’s travel within Saudi Arabia but also to the outside world, prohibiting women’s freedom of movement in a very critical way,” she told The Media Line. “A woman cannot leave the country without the permission of her guardian, who might be her youngest son. The text messages just adds another level of controlling women’s movements. I guess they’re getting more technologically advanced.”

Dr. Edit Schlaffer, founder of the advocacy group Women Without Borders, said the Saudi guardianship system is in violation of international law.

“The guardian system is one of these things that is not justified by the Qu’ran,” she told The Media Line. “No other Muslim country has a system like this. It’s a unique Saudi interpretation of Islam and according to the freedom of movement provisions under the Human Rights Act the guardianship system is totally unacceptable to the international community. But unfortunately, women’s rights are not at the forefront of international humans rights issues.”

 http://themedialine.org/news/news_detail.asp?NewsID=29514

Eleven days after The Indian Express reported that a 24-year-old teacher of West Bengal’s first Muslim university had not been able to hold classes for more than three months because she refused to heed the student union’s diktat to wear a burqa, Sirin Middya has won her battle.

The university administration contacted Middya on Monday, asking her to resume duties without a burqa, assuring that she would face no problem. The student union too said the teacher was free to decide what she wore, as long as it was “decent”

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/burqa-in-university/658211/

Mi sembra il minimo!

A PERTH judge has ordered that a Muslim woman must remove a full burqa while giving evidence before a jury in a fraud case.

Judge Shauna Deane today ruled that the witness must remove her niqab, or burqa face covering when she gives evidence to the jury.

The judge said she did not consider it appropriate that the witness give evidence with her face covered.

However she stressed she was not making a decision which was making a legal precedent, it was simply her ruling in these circumstances.

In court, defence lawyer Mark Trowell, QC, said the woman's wish to wear the burqa was a "preference she has".

"It's not an essential part of the Islamic faith. If she was in an Islamic court she would be required to remove it,'' he aid.

Judge Deane replied: ``This isn't an Islamic court.''

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/judges-orders-muslim-witness-must-remove-burqa/story-e6frf7l6-1225907310548

A leading WA Muslim has risked a backlash from his community by calling on the winner of the Federal election to ban the wearing of burqas in public.

Ameer Ali, an economics lecturer at Murdoch University and vice-president of the Regional Islamic Council of South-East Asia and the Pacific, makes the call in an opinion article in The West Australian today.

Dr Ali, describes the burqa and similar robe the niqab as "the lingering relics of a patriarchal, misogynistic and tribal culture" and argues there is no religious obligation in the Koran for it to be worn.

The native Sri Lankan, who arrived in Australia in 1977, argues that the niqab - which covers the entire female body apart from a split gap for the eyes - and the burqa, which has a mesh instead of a gap, not only covers a Muslim woman's anatomy but also "governs her mindset".

He argues the rise of Islamism, or political Islam, combined with "liberal immigration policies of Western governments", has increased the worldwide spread of the garments, which make it impossible for the wearer to properly interact with others around them.

He called on the major political parties to make banning the burqa a bipartisan issue. "France, the Netherlands and Belgium have legislated. Even Syria has disallowed this dress from public space," he said.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/newshome/7717510/ban-the-burqa-muslim-leader/

It's all in the name of equal rights. Why should it be okay (legally) for men to walk in public shirtless while it's not for women? Here in Los Angeles it's illegal.

"The 14th amendment guarantees equal protection under law and properly interpreted it guarantees women the right to be top-free where men are allowed to be topfree," they say. "Unfortunately, some jurisdictions do not recognize that right, and there is a less stringent test in the courts (called intermediate scrutiny) for gender based differential treatment than for e.g., racial classifications (which are analyzed under what's called strict scrutiny)."

This weekend's protest will happen on Sunday and will start at Ocean Front Walk and Navy Street at 2 p.m. August was chosen because of Women Equality Day on Aug. 26. The day commemorates the passage of women’s right to vote on Aug. 26, 1920. 

http://laist.com/2010/08/18/women_to_go_topless_at_venice_beach_1.php

Please do your best to organise an event in your area. Per favore fate del vostro meglio per organizzare un evento nella vostra città. Je vous prie de bien vouloir organiser une manif dans votre ville.

The International campaign to save Sakineh Ashtiaani from stoning has brought this savage, criminal punishment to the attention of the world. Today Sakineh’s name is familiar to millions of people. Hundreds of thousands have expressed their abhorrence of stoning through, among other things, signing petitions and taking part in protest actions worldwide. This millions strong movement must be organized. It must take its protest to the streets!

To that end we call on citizens of the world to mark August 28, 2010 the day of protest action by 100 CITIES OF THE WORLD AGAINST STONING. We call on you, civilized people of the world, to actively show your vehement opposition to stoning as a pre-medieval form of savagery. Organize, or participate in, protest rallies everywhere. Condemn the Islamist regime in Iran as the cruelest regime of its kind that stones people to death. It has, during the 31 years of its existence, stoned at least 109 people, predominantly women, and currently has 25 more people sit on stoning death row. These barbaric, serial killings must be stopped!

We call especially on all anti-stoning campaigners, as well as all groups and organizations particularly involved in the on-going international campaign to save Sakineh, to actively mobilize, with everything in their power, for a strong 100 CITIES OF THE WORLD AGAINST STONING action. We request you all to contact us through our website addresses below in order to coordinate your efforts and organize more effectively. We shall soon announce the list of names of the cities willing and prepared to organize an action.

Further, we request all trade unions and other workers’ organization, women’s organizations, Amnesty International and all progressive organizations to join us in this campaign aimed at forcing back the Islamist regime. Please forward this callout to your membership and mobilize them for a forceful, global 100 CITIES OF THE WORLD AGAINST STONING.

We call on all local councils, city governments and MPs around the world to actively join this global, citizens’ campaign, issue statements and pass resolutions condemning the barbaric regime of stoning in Iran.

We request the world media to help us in disseminating the news of the advance of 100 CITIES OF THE WORLD AGAINST STONING campaign.

We also call on all Iranian individulas living abroad, all Iranian opposition organizations, and all the Farsi language media to consider 100 CITIES OF THE WORLD AGAINST STONING their own protest action against the regime of stoning in Iran. We request them to add to its force as well as expanse through contributing their creative ideas.

A Bangladesh court has ruled that people cannot be forced to wear skull caps, veils or other religious clothing in workplaces, schools and colleges.

The ruling came after reports that a college in the north had forced students to wear veils.

The high court also ruled that women cannot be prevented from taking part in sports or cultural activities.

The court said that wearing any form of religious clothing, for students and employees, should be a personal choice.

It has also asked the authorities to explain why it should not be made illegal to prevent girls from taking part in sports and cultural activitie

Though Bangladesh is a Muslim-majority nation, most people practise a moderate version of Islam.

In the long run, the country's politicians want the country to transform into a secular democracy rather than an Islamic republic.

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11054231

The campaign in favor of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani is gaining momentum. Today, not one but three letters are being published by the daily, Libération, the magazine, Elle, the literary review, La Règle du Jeu, and The Huffington Post. The text of a former French President of the Republic, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, invites Iran to remain faithful to the founding values of the great Persian civilisation

And the spouse of the current President of the Republic, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, speaks from the heart of a woman to this other woman, tortured, suffering the martyr, perhaps to be stoned tomorrow, who is Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani. 

Having learned of the sentence pronounced against you, how can one possibly remain silent? What is at real risk of happening to you will profoundly harm all women, all children, all those who are moved by human feeling. And even worse, you would not be the only one who risks being subject to this dreadful execution. I cannot see any good that may come of this macabre ceremony, whatever the legal justifications supplied.

Your judges must know, Sakineh, your name has become a symbol the world over. Let us hope they may understand that, no matter what the time or the place, they shall never be able to wash their hands of such a crime.

In the depths of your cell, know that my husband will plead your cause unfailingly and that France will not abandon you.


Carla Bruni-Sarkozy

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bernardhenri-levy/post_727_b_691801.html

In Gaza, an unspoken rule bans women from riding bicycles after they have hit puberty. But last Saturday, one young Palestinian woman decided to defy the taboo, sparking smiles - and a few threats - from fellow Gaza residents.

In a spur of the moment decision, 28-year-old Palestinian journalist Asmaa Alghoul decided to join three of her friends, two Italian human rights workers and an American, on a tour of Gaza by bicycle. On a warm summer's day, the two men and two women set off from the Egyptian border town of Rafah and headed north to Gaza city, along 30km of coastal road. But to Asmaa, the ride was more than a sunny day trip: women on bicycles are frowned upon in the Palestinian territories, and the young woman had not ridden a bike since she was 14 years old.

For my international friends, riding a bike is just a pleasant means of transportation, not a political statement. But as soon as I, a Palestinian woman, decided to join their group, the trip took on another dimension.

You just don't see women riding bikes in Muslim countries. It's not forbidden per say, but it's socially unacceptable. In addition, the Hamas government in Gaza has begun enforcing very strict, sexist rules restricting women's freedom - we can no longer smoke water pipes in cafés, for example. I find all of these rules unfair - stupid, really - so I decided to go on the bike ride as a test, to see what would happen.

We had two unpleasant incidents, though. First, a group of young men on motorcycles began following us - me and my friend Chantal especially. They were tailing us closer and closer. They claimed to be Hamas police, but I didn't believe them because they looked much too young and didn't show me ID when I asked for it. So I shouted at them to leave us alone. Then I saw a real police car and pulled it over. I told the officers the men were bothering us, and the police actually helped us! They told the motorcyclists to go away and were very polite to us. Surprisingly, they didn't say anything about us being women on bikes. I think it may be because I was with international people, so the rules are a little more flexible.

The second incident was more unpleasant. Again it involved men on motorcycles. They went past us once, then came back and crossed us again. We stopped on the side of the road because they were passing by us very close and very fast. The second time they passed us, one of the men punched my friend Chantal in the back, hard, and spit in my face. I was expecting that, so I spit back. As a secular woman who doesn't wear a veil, I get a lot of that kind of attitude from younger men.